Photo taken 1925 at Pittsburgh during her last days.
The third KATE ADAMS (1899-1927) was built by the Howard Shipyards Company at Jeffersonville, Indiana, for the Memphis and Arkansas Packet Company. Her steel hull was 240 ft. long, 40 ft. beam, 7 ft. hold, having eighteen water-tight compartments. Her over-all width was 80 ft. Each stateroom had a colonial-arched entranceway. She made her first trip on Thanksgiving Day, 1899. Her run was between Memphis, Tennessee and Arkansas City, Arkansas.
The "Lovin' Kate" was the principal actress in the movie "Uncle Tom's Cabin" filmed in 1926. She was remodeled to resemble a pre-Civil War steamboat and re-named La Belle Riviere for the movie. Following her film career, her name was changed back to KATE ADAMS.
She burned at the Memphis wharf on January 8, 1927. Her roof bell now hangs over the entranceway to the Mariner's Museum, Newport News, Virginia. Her deep-toned whistle which could be heard thirty miles back in the Delta, was later installed on the towboat "Leona" of Cincinnati.
She was a way of life for those who knew her and loved her. As she flashed white on the brown river, the moan of her whistle and the splash and slap of her paddles sang the hymn of life on the Mississippi.
Howard Robb - 1960
Arkansas City, Ark., - St. Louis, Mo.

The working library of noted railroad executive John W. Barriger III (1899-1976) was acquired in 1982, the generous donation of his family. Widely recognized as one of the twentieth century's best-known and most distinguished railroad executives, Mr. Barriger was also an avid scholar, book collector, and photographer. His collection of books, papers, photographs, and memorabilia - collected over an active career of 50 years - forms the nucleus of the Library's railroad collections, one of the largest rail transportation collections in the world.